Information on the City of Johannesburg Municipal Billing Crisis

13 November 2010

Many ratepayers in the City of Johannesburg are experiencing extreme difficulties with their
municipal accounts, and some have approached the Joburg Advocacy Group (JAG) for assistance in
trying to resolve this issue. Individuals report that they have received interim electricity accounts as
high as R23 000, quickly followed by letters of demand threatening to cut services if the "arrear
amount" is not paid.

Others have reported that they have had to pay admissions of debt for erroneous amounts in order
to get the clearance certificates they require to effect transfer of a house or apartment that has
been sold.

Still others report that months and months of payments have not been credited to their accounts,
or that they have received abnormally high charges for water and other services.

All have attempted to resolve these issues through all of the normal channels. However, repeated
calls to the Joburg Connect "helpline", e-mails to the accounts office, and even visits to the accounts
office itself have left the issues they're grappling with unresolved. More often than not, they’re
simply told to pay their bills or face credit action or, ultimately, the seizure of their properties.

Similarly, although the Public Protector has asked residents to log complaints about this and other
service delivery situations, many ratepayers report that that they have not even received an
acknowledgement of their complaints from the Protector's office, let alone any assistance.

The issue has also been reported extensively in the media, but this has brought no effective relief for
ratepayers.

In the opinion of JAG, the current situation is illegal in terms of both the Bill of Rights and common
law.

In terms of Section 33 of the Bill of Rights, contained in the Constitution of the Republic of South
Africa, all citizens have the right to just administrative action, and the onus is on the state to
ensure that the administration of all state functions is effective. The actual wording of this section
of the Bill is as follows:

"Everyone has the right to administrative action that is lawful, reasonable and procedurally fair.

Everyone whose rights have been adversely affected by administrative action has the right to be
given written reasons.

National legislation must be enacted to give effect to these rights, and must:

- provide for the review of administrative action by a court or, where appropriate, an
independent and impartial tribunal;
- impose a duty on the state to give effect to the rights in subsections (1) and (2); and

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 - promote an efficient administration." (see
http://www.info.gov.za/documents/constitution/1996/96cons2.htm#33 for more).

In common law, the current billing crisis in the city may be regarded as illegal in terms of the legal
principle contractus non adempleti, which effectively makes it illegal to charge for goods or services
that have not been delivered in terms of a contractual agreement. As the city has a de facto
contract to supply services to ratepayers, which it is then permitted to charge for, the current
situation may be considered in violation of that contract. A legal opinion on this issue can be found
on the web site of the National Taxpayers’ Union (NTU) at http://www.nbusa.org/?p=429#more-
429.

Further, in terms of the eight consumer rights defined by the South African National Consumer
Union (http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/160/17811.html), the state is clearly not
meeting the consumer's right to redress in this situation.

Unfortunately JAG is a small, voluntary civil society advocacy group with limited resources, and we
are already engaged in a number of campaigns related to governance and service delivery, so are
unable to initiate and run a campaign to address the billing crisis.

We do, however, urge ratepayers to take the following actions if they are experiencing any
difficulties with their municipal accounts:

• Log a complaint with Joburg Connect (011 375 5555) and record the reference number of
the call. It is also advisable to log a complaint with the city via e-mail at
joburgconnect@joburg.org.za.
• Please follow up on both complaints within seven days and, if you are unable to have the
matter resolved, please log a complaint with the Public Protector. This can be done online at
http://www.publicprotector.org/lodge_complaint/complaints_form.asp or by calling
012 366 7000. Letters can also be addressed to the Public Protector at Private Bag X677,
Pretoria, 0001. Please keep copies of all correspondence.
• If you do not receive an acknowledgement of your complaint, please follow up
telephonically.
• Send details of both complaints to your ward councillor (see
http://www.joburg.org.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=728&catid=45
for details), and ask him or her to take up this issue on your behalf.
• We suggest you also send a copy of your complaint/s to the Minister of Cooperative
Development and Traditional Affairs, whose department is tasked with dealing with service
delivery in local government. Complaints can be logged with either the national office or any
of the regional offices (a full list is available at
http://www.dplg.gov.za/?option=com_contact&view=category&catid=0&Itemid=68). The
telephone number for the national office is 012 334 0600 and the fax number is
012 334 0603. Regretfully, very few government departments have e-mail addresses, and
where they do have them, correspondence is seldom acknowledged.
• You may also contact the SA National Consumers’ Union, a voluntary organisation dealing
with consumer issues, for advice and assistance. The union’s postal address is PO Box 27852,
Sunnyside, 0132 and its e-mail address is sancu@sabs.co.za. The union can also be reached

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 on 012 428 7122, and faxes can be sent to 086 672 8585. The SANCU web site is at
http://www.sancu.co.za/.
• Individuals and Residents’ Associations (RAs) also have the option of declaring a dispute
with the city. Sample documents can be found on the web site of the National Taxpayers’
Union (see http://www.nbusa.org/?p=400).
• Further, RAs can decide to join the NTU’s rates campaign should they wish to do so. Thirty
NTU-affiliated residents’ associations are currently withholding rates due to the non-delivery
of services, and one of the most active of these is in the community of Sannieshof in North
West (see http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=94041694787&v=wall). Rates
campaigns are best conducted under the auspices of the NTU, which has already set a
number of legal precedents in this regard. It is advisable for RAs considering a rates
campaign to become members of the NTU (at a rate of R20 per household per year), which
will give them access to the union’s extensive knowledge base, as well as both legal advice
and support.
• In larger cities, rates campaigns are best conducted by individual RAs at suburb level, as this
has proven to be more effective than trying to organise a city-wide campaign.

Unfortunately, it is our experience that very few consumers are presently able to resolve their City of
Johannesburg municipal billing problems, but we hope that concerted and consistent collective
action will ensure that the relevant authorities take appropriate action to rectify this situation.

Issued by the Joburg Advocacy Group

http://jag-sa.blogspot.com